Tag Archives: arch

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Urban/Street

Via dei Girolami

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An arch along the Via dei Girolami, Florence
An arch along the Via dei Girolami, Florence

Via dei Girolami. Florence/Firenze, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An arch along the Via dei Girolami, Florence

During our too-short visit to Florence last summer — about three days at the very end of five weeks of travel — we spent a lot of time wandering the very narrow street “canyon” of the city. I fell in love with the place, especially its architecture and its photographic potential. I photographed from early morning on into the night almost the entire time we were there. Can I go back yet?

In a city of narrow streets, the Via dei Girolami stands out. There are narrower passageways, but whole sections of this street pass beneath buildings, supported by arching structures. As with so many things during our visit, especially since I prefer to not research too much ahead of time, we “discovered” this street by taking an unintended detour. The first time we began near the Ponte Vecchio, but the second — when I made this photograph — we walked through from the other direction.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Creek Bridge

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Big Creek Bridge
Mountains drop into the Pacific ocean at Big Creek Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway

Big Creek Bridge. Big Sur Coast, California. January 24, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mountains drop into the Pacific ocean at Big Creek Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway

Back in January, probably on a hunt for big winter Pacific surf, I headed down the Pacific Coast Highway through the Big Sur Coast, making it all the way to the southern end of this spectacular route. This is often a very rugged meeting of land and sea, and in places the tall coastal mountains drop directly into the ocean. In order to find a path through this landscape, the road sometimes hugs the waterline and sometimes ascends high into these mountains.

If I recall correctly, I initially stopped here to scope out a possible photograph of the golden hour, with the plan being to stop here again on the way north. (In fact, that is what happened, and I did get a few good photographs of the spot in evening light — before the sun dropped below an offshore fog bank and the light died!) The bridge spans (with double arches) the end of the valley where Big Creek meets the ocean. On this afternoon a big winter swell was coming in from the northwest and producing lines of big waves.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Arch and Canyon

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Arch and Canyon
A large arch above a Utah sandstone canyon

Arch and Canyon. Utah. October 24, 20114. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large arch above a Utah sandstone canyon

I have been down this canyon a couple of times now. The walk begins in what might seem like an inauspicious place in rather plain terrain. Soon the route drops below the level of the plateau and enters the upper portion of a shallow canyon. Continuing to walk into this canyon, the walls soon rise higher and the canyon narrows and twists. Before long the expected sandstone walls appear.

As is usually the case, we followed the course of the creek along the bottom of the canyon, alternately walking in it, walking next to it, or cutting over higher ground between bends in its course. Places like this are full of distractions, and stops are frequently to photograph water seeping over rocks, trees with fall colors, arrangements of rocks and pebbles, reflections and always the sandstone canyon walls. Eventually we reached a familiar personal landmark along the route where we stopped to photograph, eat, and talk. A short distance beyond and the around another bend, and a path led up to a high point, from which there was a view through this arch back into the canyon.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects

The Cloisters

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The Cloisters
The Cloisters

The Cloisters. New York City. December 30, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Large stone room at the Cloisters museum, Tryon Park, New York City

The Cloisters is a facility that is a (remote) part of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, located way uptown at Fort Tryon along the Hudson River not too far from the George Washington Bridge. It was constructed as a sort of showplace for various elements from early European architecture and art, and it feels far removed from much of the rest of the New York experience, at least to this Californian. We had visited, or tried to visit, on a previous trip to New York, going all the way up there only to find that we had picked the one day each week when it was closed! So getting back there and going inside was on our agenda during our late 2013 visit.

The weather and light affect my response to such places, and this was a gray winter day. We took the subway up from lower Manhattan, and when we got off at Fort Tryon it was very cold, very gray, and quite windy as we walked to the Cloisters. Once inside, the light coming in from courtyards and windows was soft and diffused, and I thought the light in this room was especially beautiful. Some light was coming in from outside through the small window at the right, but out of the frame to the left there is a large open courtyard that was also spilling light in from that direction.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.